The air pump that I was referring to is used for keeping bait alive. Its basically just a battery powered air pump like FW people use on their tanks.

Rob, I think you will find that 4" of wet sand plus the tank is VERY heavy. I just use a dust pan to scoop it up and put it into buckets. I use moving a tank as an opportunity to clean the sand anyway. If its been in place for more then a year or two its pretty full of detritus and waste. There are a lot of nutrients trapped in the sand. Disturbing the sand bed by moving the tank releases a lot of the nutrients.

Like I said, I like to wash the sand when I move the tank. Just save some to reseed it and wash the rest of it with a garden hose. I think you will be surprised how much brown silt you will wash out of it.